Shortly before watching his 60th consecutive Colorado high school wrestling tournament, less than a month before his 86th birthday and after he had removed his blasted hearing aids for the day, J. Allen “Pat” Patten didn’t hesitate when asked what attracts him and tens of thousands of others to the fabled annual gathering.
“I like it,” he said.
It can be that simple when assessing reasons for the popularity of the state’s 71st annual teenage rumblefest, a three-day happening that will begin Thursday at the Pepsi Center and attract more than 40,000 loyal fans from every part of the state.
Wrestling is the only sport of 21 offered by the Colorado High School Activities Association able to fill the Pepsi Center and pay the price for its use. The leader in centralizing all school sizes under one roof, wrestling has turned its championships into must-see high school competition with athleticism that is primitive and pure.
“The thing about it is that the kid has to rely upon himself,” said Patten, Colorado’s 95-pound champion in 1937 and 1938 when he attended Manual. “That really develops some character within him. He needs to make sure that he is the one that is going to decide the match – not his buddy, a forward or fullback or something that. … It’s not that kind of sport.”
Wrestlers and their followers form the state’s biggest not-so-secret club, ripe with kids sporting ears swollen to look like juicy peppers and adults who know every move on the mat. Like old dancers, the wrestling fanatics bend and twist as the match progresses, reaching out to grab imaginary limbs while shouting vital instructions.
It’s a blessed addiction. A fraternity forged by blood and sweat on weekends at musty gymnasiums across the country.
“It’s like a cult. It’s a wrestling family, man,” said longtime La Junta coach John Haberman, whose son, Jared, won his fourth state championship in 1999, finishing with a career mark of 135-5.
Longtime Abraham Lincoln coach Les Mattocks has missed only one match in 38 seasons of coaching.
“It’s just the love of wrestling,” Mattocks said. “The wrestling bunch, boy, that’s a special breed.”
Combine commitment, hard work, strength, quickness, dexterity, intelligence and heart, Mattocks said, and the result is camaraderie unsurpassed by any other sport.
The athletes who encompass 14 weight classes come in every shape and size. Golden senior Brooke Sauer, in the 103-pound class, will make history this year, becoming the the first girl to compete in the Colorado championships since their inception in 1936.
Ask Arapahoe junior Robert Lanius, who fought through the consolation bracket to advance out of regionals, how much it means to make it to state.
“To come back, it just means so much,” Lanius said with tears threatening to spill from his eyes. “It’s been my dream from Day One. I went last year to watch our team, and I thought how much I want to be down there.”
Even though his son graduated in 2001, Grand Junction resident Kevin Brooks made the 244-mile trip to Denver on Saturday to watch the Tigers wrestle in the Class 5A regional tournament. Brooks will gladly make the drive again Thursday. A 1976 Montrose graduate who went to state at 135 pounds, Brooks wouldn’t miss the annual pilgrimage.
“Wrestling gave me a lot of reasons to be successful,” said Brooks, who owns seven Big O Tires franchises on the Western Slope. “In my business, we’re successful because of what wrestling taught me. We go up and battle in business just like the sport of wrestling.
“When we go to negotiate or do business with someone, we go to win.”
Patten, who hasn’t missed a state tournament since 1947, was an Olympic judge and instituted the Junior World competition here, purchases a section of seats so he can bring some of his former wrestlers at Boulder to sit, chat and take in the action.
The first centralized event, with all classes competing, drew 32,354 fans to McNichols Sports Arena in 1987. Four seasons ago, the tournament set a three-day high of 47,492 fans. Last year’s event drew 44,816. Beginning Thursday night, they’ll noisily wear their allegiance and school colors while cheerleaders offer a serenade.
“If a school has two kids in the tournament,” CHSAA commissioner Bill Reader said, “they’ll bring 25 or 30 people. And then they’ll stay for the finals. It’s the only tourney where you’ll have representation from maybe 200 schools. It’s a big reunion every year, a big party every year.
“People see each other once a year, and it’s at the state tournament.”
CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann says Colorado’s tournament ranks with national heavyweights Iowa, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania in terms of support.
“It’s tough to get, because the formats are so different (elsewhere),” Borgmann said. “But we’ve been told (by the National Federation of State High School Associations) that we rank up there in numbers of people.”
The crowd is attentive. People come to watch, not to be seen.
“They all know the big matches beforehand,” Reader said.
Memories are made. Reader recalls when Pomona’s Tom Clum gave up a five-point move to Wasson’s Brett Roller in the closing seconds to lose by a point, ending his career 148-1 in 2001.
“It was the most electrifying moment I’ve ever had in sports, including the Super Bowl,” Reader said.
The tournament has a three- year contract with the Pepsi Center. Reader said the annual cost of the event is about $340,000. It costs approximately $70,000 to reimburse schools for travel and another $10,000 goes to officials. About 125 people volunteer, with one meal per day in return.
The biggest high school championships are about to begin.
“Tell them to come down,” Reader said.
Staff writer Neil H. Devlin can be reached at 303-820-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com.
